Olayide Akanni is the Executive Director of Journalists Against AIDS (JAAIDS) Nigeria; a leading media-based organization, which seeks to contribute to the prevention, care and control of HIV and AIDS, and Tuberculosis in Nigeria. Over the past seven years, Olayide has served in various capacities in JAAIDS and several other advocacy-based coalitions, including the African Civil Society Coalition on HIV/AIDS, in promoting HIV/AIDS and TB treatment literacy, capacity building for media and civil society groups, and policy monitoring on universal access to prevention, treatment and care services. She has also been actively involved in monitoring the status of access to treatment issues for HIV/AIDS and TB in Nigeria, having served as country researcher under the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) “Missing the Target Report” and the “Civil Society Perspectives on TB research” supported by the Open Society Institute (OSI), New York.
She also serves on several groups including the Board of the Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance (SAHARA), the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for TB of the World Health Organization (STAG-TB), Nigeria National TB/HIV Working Group and the New HIV Vaccines and Microbicides Advocacy Society (NHVMAS). Prior to joining JAAIDS, Olayide worked as the Health Correspondent for Punch Newspapers, a leading National Newspaper in Nigeria. Olayide holds a Master’s degree in Biochemistry from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.